Product Details

• Actors: William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison
• Writers: Sydney Newman
• Format: Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: May 18, 1994
• Run Time: 99 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303058841
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #289,934 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Sabotage! The TARDIS is breaking up! Thanks to the combined efforts of the treacherous Turlough and his evil master, the Black Guardian, the Doctor and his companions are in terrible danger. The outside world has begun to break through and Nyssa has disappeared Can the TARDIS' fail safe mechanism save them all by docking with another ship? Unlikely, when the nearest vessel is a carrier of plague victims destined for the infamous Terminus, the time-bomb planet ticking at the center of the univers. Starring Peter Davison

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Look closer, it is GREAT!, April 12, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Doctor Who - Terminus [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I too felt that this story was a dreary dissapointment for a long time, but when I bought the video and took a much closer look, I realised it is actually a subtle but very, very good story that is a vital part of season 20, which, after Arc of Infinity, becomes one of the most intelligent, thoughtful, atmospheric and mature seasons of Dr.Who ever made, rivalling Pertwee's Season Seven and Tom Baker's season 14.
Here, there is a truly exciting first episode as the Tardis almost gets destroyed by Turlough and his evil master, the Black Guardian and then arrives on a ship full of space-plague sufferers! Scary!
The next three episodes are then very low key and build up slowly to a truly amazing climax. As Turlough agonizes over whether or not to kill the Doctor and gets told by Tegan that he is "weird" (haha!), Nyssa sucumbs to the illness and is taken by the alien Garm, only to be cured. Meanwhile, the Doctor investigates the central mystery, that star charts indicate the ancient, ramshackle vessel of Terminus is at the very center of what the Doctor calls "the known universe".
With the help of a woman Space Pirate, the Doctor locates the dark, rusted and decayed control deck with a giant, long dead alien pilot at the helm. Here the Doctor theorizes that Terminus dumped a malfunctioning engine through a time warp and triggered the Big Bang which created the Universe. Suddenly, he finds himself faced with an ancient, out of control machine which is preparing to jettison a second engine, which may possibly cause a second chain reaction that could destroy the cosmos!
Far fetched? Yes! Mind bogglingly imaginative? Defintely! And it takes the help of a slave to stop the destruction of everything the Doctor knows and holds dear.
The final episode is truly gripping and there's a very moving farewell to Nyssa, before the evil Black Guardian tries one last time to pressure Turlough to "Kill the Doctor!"
No dodgy CSO, the Garm is not great, but only has a small role, and the whole thing has great atmosphere. Considering Mary Ridge directed this during a strike which reduced her shooting time to a bare minimum, the acting still convinces. All in all, damn good!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything that was unique and wonderfull about the Davison era is contained in Terminus., July 4, 2005

By 

Matthew D. Cornelius (stockton, ca United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Doctor Who - Terminus [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is in my opinion the single most under-rated story of the Davison years and in fact my personal favorite of the Davison years. In this review I will attempt to explain what I see in this episode that makes it so good.

But first a very brief dicription of the plot of Terminus the second story in the Black Gaurdian trilogy.Turlough with the help of the Black Gaurdian sabotages the Tardis and the Tardis nearly breaks up. The Doctor manages to get it under control but not before Nyssa's room is filled with dimensional instability. Nyssa is trapped and about to be killed her only hope a Tardis safety device that causes the Tardis to connect to the closest nearby ship. Suddenly a very sinister door appears in Nyssa's room a door with a very evil looking death's head painted on it. The Doctor tells her she must go through the door or she'll die and so Nyssa departs.

Now that the Doctor has regained full control of the Tardis it's time to find where Nyssa has gone the Doctor and his companions now set off in search of Nyssa. Only to find themselves on a very old very warn out spaceship with sinister death's head painting's everywhere.

Meanwhile the ship is boarded by two space pirates who believe the ship is a good target because it came from a rich sector. Things become even more sinister as the pirates confront the Doctor and his companions at gun point. Suddenly the pirate ship speads away leaving the two pirates stranded. The ship is now docking with a space station. Suddenly doors all over the ship begin opening and what appears to be hundreds of people who look like the living dead come shambling out. Now one of the pirates knows what is happening and is terrified they are on a plague ship filled with victims of Lazars desease headed to one of the most infamous places in the universe Terminus. And worst of all Nyssa is now infected.

Without giving away to much in the way of spoilers the mystery of Terminus now begins. Nyssa is now trapped with the Lazers the people who run Terminus claim there is a cure but is there? Or is it all a cruel hoax? And have they only been brought there to die? As Nyssa asks one of the people who are in charge as they decend in an elevator into what looks like the endless depths of this truely sinister looking station "What is this horrendous place?".

That is the mystery the Doctor and Nyssa must solve. And what is the sinister sequence of events of started on this station at the exact center of the universe that could create a second big bang? But unlike the first Big Bang this one won't create the universe like the last one but will instead destroy it. Can the mystery that is Terminus be solved before it's too late?

This is a story filled with moral ambiguity from begining to end. From the duplicity of Turlough who sabotages the Tardis at the begining of the story. To the people who run Terminus and the pirates. Who are the good guys? Who are the bad guys? What exactly motivates the people in this story too behave as they do? Who can be trusted? These are questions that can keep you guessing until the end.

Besides the strong basic mystery of the plot there is a true feel of danger in this story to the Doctor and his companions that you don't usually see as strongly in most Doctor Who episodes. There's the danger of the people on Terminus there's the danger of Turlough the danger of the Black Gaurdian the danger of the plague the danger of the end of the universe. If ever there was an episode with the omni-present feel of total overwhelming doom from all sides this is it.

This is a very dark episode and the feel of this episode is helped greatly by the excellent set design. The set interior of the space craft and Terminus it's self. The sets are darkly lit the sets look old worn out used up. Everythings grey metal and some how looks filthy like you'd want to wash your hands after touching it. If I were to do some word association on the vibe these sets give off the words that come to mind are, sinisterness,hopelessness,malevolence and doom. The sets really create a feel that adds to the darkness of the story. In fact I would say these are some of the most successfully atmospheric sets ever created for Doctor Who.

Another strong aspect to this episode is excellent costume design. Like the skeleton like gold radiation armor of the crew of Terminus. The costumes give off the same general vibe as the sets themselves

The excellent direction of Mary Ridge helps this episode a great deal. There is lots of unusual camera work in this episode wich is all well designed to create scale.Like camera shots showing Turlough and Tegan hiding beneath some floor grating then the camera slowly pans up to show people walking on the grating above their heads. Another excellent shot shows first one of the people who are hunting after the doctor he's standing there suddenly he stops he here's a noise and looks up. The camera pans up to the walk way above and shows the doctor walking through follows the doctor and then pans down to the guy who was looking for him. Mary Ridge makes excellent use of scale.

There's lots of camera movement wich is unusual for Doctor Who or television in general in this era. It helps add to the general sense of tension.


Also I feel it has one of the best companion departures since Romanna. Just like when Romanna stayed at the end of Warriors Gate to help free the enslaved Tharil's. Nyssa stays behind to free those enslaved on Terminus. And I can't help but think both Romanna and the Tharil's and Nyssa and Terminus both would have made excellent spin-off shows. And since I just picked up my copy of Warriors Gate I just realised both Warriors Gate and Terminus were written by the same guy Steve Gallagher.



Anyway if you prefer the darker side of Doctor Who this could be the story for you.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "There is no return. This is Terminus.", October 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Doctor Who: Terminus [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Highly entertaining, though there are a few dull sections. The ship's atmosphere is wonderfully dark and occasionally claustrophobic, then you get to its destination, and that place is even worse... The plot has some interesting twists, and it's fun to watch Tegan and Turlough snipe at one another, then have to work together to try to save themselves. Plus, this is a very important storyline for Nyssa. Yes, the monster walks so slowly, but it wouldn't be a Doctor Who episode if it didn't. <g> And you have to love those 80s outfits and makeup.